Miss Marple Book

I was stuck at my grandparents house for a summer while my mother and brother went to Bermuda on a boyscout trip that I couldn't accompany them on. Needless to say, I was bitter. My grandmother had a number of books in a bookcase in the guest bedroom, mostly historical fiction, religious biographies, and birdwatching guides. But this little gem was wedged between a tell-all on St. Francis of Assisi and 'Season at the Point: The Birds and Birders of Cape May.' And thus I discovered Agatha Christie. I spent that night polishing off short story after short story, got in trouble around 2 a.m. for having my reading light on, only to slink under the covers with a flashlight as soon as my grandmother returned to bed to continue reading. Miss Marple, the aged but acute sleuth, became the love of my summer. I would read the stories over and over, trying to catch clues and put together Christie's elaborate plots. Poirot is probably the most celebrated of Christie's characters, but Miss Jane Marple taught me that a literary sleuth does not have to be male or young in order to be captivating.